


An Inside Out Perspective

by arielgryffinpuff



Category: Inside Out (2015), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-15
Updated: 2018-10-04
Packaged: 2019-05-07 10:12:44
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,498
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14668887
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/arielgryffinpuff/pseuds/arielgryffinpuff
Summary: Steve and Tony had agreed to a date. A proper date, just them two, no interruptions, no world that needs saving.With a look inside their head to see what their (angsty and sarcastic) emotions are thinking.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I love feedback. Please tell me what you think, constructive criticism welcome.

Steve and Tony had agreed to a date. A proper date, just them two, no interruptions, no world that needs saving.

_**Steve’s head** _

The emotions were sitting in their chairs, mostly prepared. Fear had yet to calm down. There was no one emotion in control, but they worked together, a sign of a healthy-functioning control system. Most of the time.

The emotions wore old clothes, like Steve did back in the day. Their control room was somewhat military-like with a radio in the back, war-bunker style tables and chairs, but it was also relaxed, with American flags in random places and helpful arrow signs for the emotions to navigate.

 

**_Tony’s head._ **

Tony’s emotions were usually in a mess in the control centre. Today was not much different, apart from there were a warning signs beeping on the walls that weren’t there all that often, and thus sparked a new midst of panic.

WARNING: DATE AHEAD ⚠️

FEELINGS ⚠️

INTIMACY ⚠️

POSSIBILITY OF ATTACHMENT ⚠️

They were trying their hardest, but so many thoughts and ideas and possibilities and outcomes went through Tony’s head at any given time took a toll on the emotions. Sometimes the emotions tried to take charge, to get things in order, but it was hard and all the emotions were tired at this point – but dammit, they tried, and sometimes that was enough to get Tony by. Just about.

 

\--

_Steve_

Anger walked along the front of the desk militarily, his arms behind his back.

“Ok, ladies and gents,” Anger commanded the other emotions attention, “this is how it’s gonna go.”

He suddenly turned to sadness.

“Sadness!” She looked up in attention, “Do not ruin this for us, ok? You will stay quiet, unless in the rare possibility we need to pull you out.”

Sadness was looking glum and just leaning on the table, as always.

“Fine,” She drawled out sadly.

“Joy!” She leapt to attention.

“Yes! I know exactly what to do!”

Anger raised one eyebrow at her.

“What? I know the drill! Smile, a lot, laugh at his jokes, compliment him, talk about happy things, relish in his joyful smile-”

“Ok, that’s enough.” Joy shut up.

“Fear! Uh…” he sighed in resentment. This wasn’t going to go well.

He was literally screaming.

“What am I gonna do?! Oh, no, I’m terrible on dates, remember that time when-”

Anger put a hand over his eyes.

“Looks like I’m running the shots,” Joy said, sneakily taking control of the main functioning.

“Joy-!”

“Right, Mr Hotshot,” Disgust rose from her seat and went over to Anger, “ _You_ are going to sit in your seat over there. Not in the middle, in your _restricted_ seat.”

“What? You- but- you need me- what if-”

“Got it?” She said, and Anger looked disgruntled.

“We’re a team, remember, Anger?” Joy said more softly, “We work together. But we don’t need much from you on this one. You don’t have to be in charge all the time. This isn’t a battle.”

Anger grumbled a bit more and went over to his corner to flop down in his seat.

“Okay then,” Joy said, and Steve lifted his head, taking a deep breath in, nodding to himself. “Wardrobe!”

“I like the old-style waistcoat,” Sadness said, “Reminds me of home.”

Joy decided to put up a picture of Tony’s smile at the front of Steve’s mind to make things easier.

“See? You like that?” She asked Sadness.

“A million tears lie behind every smile…”

Joy moaned, choosing to ignore that remark, muttering about how his smile could _erase_ a million tears rather.

This was going to be harder than she thought. But they could do this. Steve could _do_ this. He’s been through much worse than a date, after all.

\--

The emotions inside Tony’s head kept flipping between shouting and arguing chaotically and just letting the function run automatically, all sense of hope for cooperation forgone.

Tony took a deep sip of his drink. He decided to go to his kitchen early, whip up a fabulous meal cooked by the finest chef in New York whom he had invited over, and then it was just…a meal. With a friend. With someone more than a friend. With Steve. He ended up just tidying things up in his private dining room, overlooking open doors to the balcony. He couldn’t really concentrate much. He was nervous.

Joy was in a heated argument with Anger, who was constantly hitting things like a spoilt child. Sadness was crying, watching sad memories, as usual. Fear was hiding underneath the control table, teeth chattering. Disgust had pictures of all the emotions up on the wall of the control centre, and was throwing darts at it.

“I, hate, you, all,” She said with each throw.

“Uh…why… why?!” Fear pleaded with no one in particular. Disgust rolled her eyes, but Sadness’ crying _was_ getting annoying, so she helped up Fear and pushed Sadness to the side on her wheelie chair, her heavy, laden weight going begrudgingly. She often said she held the weight of the world.

She put Fear in the centre chair at the control table.

“There you go.” She huffed and sat down next to him.

“I can’t _do_ this!” Fear commiserated. Sadness offered him a tissue.

“If I – could – only – press the – optimism-” Joy struggled, but Anger was holding her back. All the emotions had been against her being in control for a _long_ time.

“What’s optimism?” Sadness asked glumly.

“Something that is bad and we DO NOT need!” Anger barked at Joy.

Joy pouted.

“Please, just let Tony have this one chance. Come on, guys. We need to work _together_. We have a chance-”

“There is no chance! Don’t you get that?” Anger said incredulously. Joy looked around all the emotions.

“You all feel like that?” Joy asked, and the other emotions just looked away guiltily, “Guys…”

Anger went to sit on the edge chair and kept an eye on Joy.

“That concealer really isn’t doing much for those bags under his eyes, you know what I mean?” Disgust said. Joy rolled her eyes.

\--

“I mean…y-you look gorgeous,” Steve said, without really thinking, but he didn’t regret it, because it was true. Tony’s surprised face only highlighted that he was right to say it.

All five emotions in Tony’s head dropped their mouths open. Fear’s teeth fell out.

“Er, thanks…” Tony blushed, “Don’t brush up too bad yourself, Captain.”

Steve smiled.

Tony took a sip of his drink.

They got into conversation easily enough. It seemed to flow between them, they didn’t talk over each other too much, but were polite, well, more on Steve’s side, and they could understand each other, funnily enough, and... it was _nice_. Warm. Fuzzy.

And the meal was _really_ good.

_Steve_

“Did you just hear that?” Disgust asked, standing up from her seat, “His stomach just groaned, we can’t have Steve’s stomach groaning!”

“Oh, God, he’ll think I’m a pig!” Fear cried out.

Steve cleared his throat, trying to hide his insecurities, and moved onto a new topic of conversation.

At the end of the evening, they then had their first kiss.

“Disgust?”

“Nothing, just sensual, plush lips, oh god…” She collapsed in her seat, “I’m in heaven.”

“A new core memory is being created!” Sadness said. They all followed where it was going, but Joy stayed at the control table, in bliss, as the kiss went deeper.

“Yes, yes, come on…” She rooted them on. Tony breathed for air, looked into his eyes, then they came together again, melting into one.

“Oh yes,” Joy said, “This is good. This is very, very, very good.” “…Joy, I think a new island is being created!”

“Hmmm…” She wasn’t really listening.

“I thought it would go onto the existing island of relationship bonds,” Disgust said in confusion.

“Maybe this one’s special…” Fear speculated.

Anger tip-toed back to his seat. He pressed a small button.

“No one is going to hurt him. He’s mine,” Anger said, rubbing his hands together.

Joy awoke a bit more, seeing that Steve put his hands on Tony’s face and pulled him harder against him.

“Anger!” She chastised, “What are you doing?”

“It’s not fair how he’s been treated, don’t you see, Joy? He deserves this, he deserves happiness, to be treated right, and dammit I will treat him right!”

Sadness came next to Joy as well.

“I agree. It’s so sad. We need to protect him from the world. We still need to protect Steve from this world,” Sadness sighed.

Steve rubbed his thumb along Tony’s ear, and Tony let out a small little sound, and held onto Steve’s shirt, angling his head for a better position.

Joy cocked her head, then looked back to the other meddling emotions. Joy scowled, “Fine. But you know, he can take care of himself. He’s a superhero. He has the best, most impressive suit of armour I’ve ever seen.”

“We don’t mean that kind of protecting, Joy,” Sadness said, sadly.

“Well, we mean that as well,” Anger supplied.

Joy offered a small, hidden smile, as she turned back to watch the tender scene.

The new core memory was one of acceptance, and relief that he kissed back, mostly of joy, with only a touch of the other emotions. Overall, a good result.

The others were watching the new island being formed. Its main stature was of Steve and Tony with their arms around each other, kissing. “Aww,” Fear said. “It’s a romance island, guys!”

“Is it not just a Tony island? I feel like it’s a Tony island,” Disgust theorised, “Like, specifically for him. If not, he definitely needs his own island.”

“Focus in, that’s it, FOCUS!” Joy shouted at the screen, where Tony was looking at Steve with a fond expression, a hint of fear and wonder as well, “Somebody sketch him, quickly, I need this face etched into my mind.”

“We’re on it!”

“We seem to have a, uh, downstairs problem,” Anger said. Fear looked back to the control panel in fear.

“No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no…”

“Calm down, it’s ok. We’ll just pack it away, we will not ruin this night.”

“I agree,” Sadness said, and Joy smiled at her.

“Good, that’s agreed then!”

“We need to wrap up this night,” Fear jumped into the centre chair, “That ain’t going down anytime soon, God what a great time to get a boner.” He was pulling on his army cap, and then made a silent cross sign.

Steve was glad that Tony also wanted to see him again. He kissed him again, and Tony smiled, gratefully received. And a little voice in his head kept telling him to wrap it up, cause boy this woody ain’t going down any time soon. So he said goodnight, and Tony said goodnight, with a goodnight kiss, which only made matters worse, and high-tailed it out of there as fast as he could without raising suspicion.

And as soon as he got back to his room, his mind, thankfully, supplied him with a beautiful visual of Tony smiling up at him, the lines on his face showing his eyes light up, his lips moisturised from the kiss. Beautiful, and hopefully happy, and full of future, and healthy, and _his._ Maybe.


	2. Chapter 2

**Tony’s head**

The emotions were all in a sort of passed-out state.

And they remained that way for the rest of the night, even when Tony went to bed, alone, and still on a high, fairly unable to rest.

The next day, some of the emotions were talking about what they think could be going through Steve’s mind. Obviously, it was a mystery why he seemed to like Tony. Very strange. Joy, unfortunately, was not allowed to participate much in the discussion.

Steve was appearing in the love island. The emotions were in shock. Joy saw this as an opportunity.

Sadness pulled up a memory of Obie. Of the bad things that can happen from too much being on love island, of trusting people, of getting involved too deeply. Love island was scarce enough anyway, Joy thought.

“Steve would not betray us.”

“I would say better to be safe than sorry, but…I don’t even care,” Sadness said honestly.

“Alright people, let’s go through the motions.”

Fear was in the middle, drinking his coffee.

“I feel optimistic about today,” Fear said.   
“How come you get to feel optimistic?” Joy complained.

“Because I know what to be optimistic about, Joy. Not emotions and feelings, but of things that we can actually accomplish. Like _work_ stuff.”

Joy sighed.

Then, Steve walked into the room.  
“I gotta say, it feels a bit redundant saying goodnight and going to different rooms, when we’re only one floor away from each other,” Steve smiled.

Tony smirked a bit.

“WHAT THE _HELL_ WAS THAT-!”

“Disgust, draw up a list of what he could mean by that. QUICKLY!”  
“WHAT DOES HE MEAN?!?”

“I TOLD you he wants sex, and you just said, oh, no, he’s an old-fashioned guy, marriage first and all that, well you know they had UNMARITAL SEX IN THE FORTIES, FEAR! AND IT’S NOT EVEN THE FOURTIES ANYMORE!” Disgust screeched.

“DISGUST!”  
“Guys-”

“Oh, um,” Steve blushed, scratching behind his ear cutely, “I didn’t mean anything by that – I just, you know, er…”

Anger breathed a sigh of relief.

“WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?!?” Fear cried out again. He was panicking.

“Guys, can’t you see? He’s blushing, it’s cute!” Joy said, “Oh my gosh, tell him he’s cute!”

Disgust burst out laughing,

“Now THAT is why we don’t have you in charge, Joy.”

Joy crossed her arms.

“I get it, Steve,” Tony said brazenly, “It’s difficult to resist this.” He motioned to himself.

Joy rolled her eyes onto the ground.

Disgust high-fived Fear.

“Crisis averted, everyone, it’s ok!” Fear said, and the others seemed actually relieved.

“I hate myself,” Disgust said.

“It is,” Steve said, leaning in. Tony felt his breath quicken. He then stroked Tony’s face.

“WHAT THE EVER-LOVING FUCK-”

“HE IS GOING IN, I REPEAT…”

The warning signs were going off on the wall again.

INTIMACY ⚠️

Until-

“Tony?”

“Huh,” Tony said, fluttering his eyes up at Steve. The emotions were still. “What?”

“What’s going through that head of yours…?” He said, with a small smile and loving look in his blue eyes.

“N-nothing,” Tony said, taking Steve’s hands and caressing them. He leaned in to kiss Steve, and they made out for a good, long while (Joy was having a great time). Mouths colliding, tongues exploring and quick breathes, and then Steve sighed.

“Mm…Tony. I wanna stay here with you, but I have to go to work,” Steve said reluctantly.

“Aw…”

“Yea, I know. I’ll miss you. But I’ll see you later tonight, ok?”

“Okay,” Tony replied happily, and his lips curved into a small, pleased smile. Joy smiled as well, glad that it finally seemed to be going in the right direction. Love island was glowing, and it was about time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know it's been a while since I updated, most things actually. I have put this as 2/2 chapters, but if you're interested you could still subscribe, as I might come back to it later, but not soon. I hope you like the perspective, and (kindly) tell me your thoughts.


End file.
